ENERGY PLAN FOR WHITE RIVER
FOREST ON TAP

The White River National Forest is Colorado’s largest and now its managers are drafting a new plan to decide where oil and gas drilling can occur on its  more than 2.3 million acres.

It is an important issue for a huge area that features some of the state’s premier ski destinations, including Vail and Aspen, as well as historic sites, plentiful wildlife and spectacular vistas.

Forest officials will write a new environmental analysis that will update which areas in the western Colorado forest can be leased for energy development. They’re taking public comments on the plan until the end of the month.

Roughly 130,000 acres of the forest have already been leased, but not all have been developed, with only 82 current well sites.

LOAN GIANTS THREATEN ENERGY
EFFICIENCY PROGRAMS

As we’ve been reporting in Colorado Energy News, what looked like a win-win situation for consumers and counties to partner on deploying energy efficiency upgrades is suddenly in trouble. All because the two government-chartered agencies that buy and resell most home mortgages are warning they might not accept loans for homes that take advantage of the special financing. 

The Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, is designed to help homeowners install solar panels and other energy improvements, which they pay for over time on their property tax bills.  The program has been hailed as an innovative way to help homeowners afford the retrofitting of a house with solar panels, which can cost $30,000 or more before incentives.

The Obama administration has ponied up $150 million in stimulus money to help support the program.  But with Fannie Mae ande Freddie Mac threatening to derail the program, the mixed messages have alarmed state officials and prompted many local governments to freeze their programs — including Boulder County — SEE STORY BELOW.

“The thing that is maddening is that this is having a real-life impact with companies laying off people and homeowners in limbo as all these projects are stalled,” said Clifford Rechtschaffen, a special assistant attorney general in California told the NY Times.

BOULDER COUNTY - Recent federal decisions that negatively impact property-assessed clean energy financing programs throughout the country, have forced Boulder County to cancel the third round of residential financing under the ClimateSmart Loan Program.

The residential portion of the loan program, which had been on hold since early May while the county worked through two major issues at the federal level, has been suspended indefinitely.

Boulder County was able to successfully address one of the issues by bringing the ClimateSmart Loan Program (CSLP) into alignment with the Department of Energy’s newly issued guidelines for all property-assessed clean energy, or PACE, programs.

However, the county, working along with other PACE program administrators, has been unable to reverse a policy decision by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which prohibits new financing, secured by a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage, on properties on which there exists a property assessment for any energy efficiency/renewable energy improvements. Since property financing can switch hands over time, any residential loan secured by a mortgage may be subject to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rules at some point.

Working with Colorado’s Congressional delegation and other stakeholder partners, the county has met complete resistance to modify the policy from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which helps set national standards for mortgages, and from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

WESTERN GOVERNORS RELEASE CLIMATE ADAPTATION REPORT

WHITEFISH, MONT. — The Western Governors’ Association has published a climate adaptation scoping report that emphasizes the need for coordination between state and federal efforts to identify key science that is Western specific and begins to share and implement smart practices.

The governors adopted the report during their Annual Meeting here this week. Govs. Bill Richardson (N.M.) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Calif.) are WGA’s lead governors for Climate Adaptation. Following ar excerpts from that letter that accompanied the report:

“Across the western United States, we are already experiencing the adverse impacts of climate change on our environment, infrastructure, economies and communities. Clearly, we must implement new management strategies to build a resilient West.

“Western governors recognize the need to work together to respond to these changes, which stand to greatly affect our quality of life. In 2009, the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) adopted a policy resolution titled Supporting the Integration of Climate Change Adaptation Science in the West. This resolution represented the governors’ interest in a coordinated response to climate change impacts and in including climate science in our policy and management activities.

The WGA Climate Adaptation Work Group will work with stakeholders to implement the recommendations in the report, which is available at www.westgov.org.

BP FINED $5.2 MILLION FOR FALSE REPORTING IN COLORADO

DENVER — The Department of Interior Department has levied a $5.2 million on BP America for allegedly submitting false reports about energy production on on Southern Ute Indian tribal lands.

The Interior Department said Wednesday that the U.S. unit of BP PLC repeatedly misreported royalty rates for natural gas. Interior spokesman Patrick Etchart said BP was not taking more natural gas than reported. Instead, BP at times reported erroneous royalty rates, or listed gas coming from the wrong wells, he said.Indian reservation in Colorado.

Daren Beaudo, a spokesman for the energy company, said most of the errors came when BP listed royalty payments for “natural gas’’ instead of “coal-bed methane gas,’’ a more specific designation with a different royalty schedule. The errors led BP to underpay the Southern Utes about $200,000, which has been repaid, Beaudo said.